Local vs. Cloud Controlled devices

Yuvi

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Local Control vs. Cloud: Why We Believe in Keeping Smart Homes… Smart

At Leios, we’re all about empowering people to make their homes more connected, more convenient, and more in their control. But one of the biggest questions we get—especially from folks just starting to explore smart home tech—is:

“Should I go with devices that use the cloud, or ones that work locally?”

It’s a great question. And while cloud-based systems have their appeal (we won’t pretend they don’t), we tend to lean pretty hard into local control—and here’s why.

Cloud-Based Devices: Super Convenient… Until They’re Not

A lot of smart home gear these days relies on the cloud to work. That means they’re connecting to a company’s servers every time you dim a light or arm your security system. Most of the time, it works like magic. But when it doesn’t? Well… it really doesn’t.

Let’s look at a few real-world examples:

  • Sudden shutdowns: In 2022, Insteon—a big name in the smart home world—just… vanished. Servers off, apps useless, devices bricked overnight. People woke up to find that their expensive setups no longer worked (InsideHook).

  • Surprise fees: Remember when Wink started charging users a monthly subscription just to keep using their hubs? That didn’t go over well. (Consumer Reports) Oh, and Tado—a smart thermostat company—floated the idea of charging people to use their app. To control their thermostat. The one they already bought. (The Verge).

  • Massive outages: If your smart lights are tied to cloud servers and those servers go down, you’re back to clapping like it’s 1993. Case in point: an AWS outage in 2021 disrupted everything from Netflix to baby monitors. (CyberNews)

The Privacy Piece

This part’s a little less dramatic but just as important: your data.

Cloud-connected devices often send usage data—sometimes even audio or video—to the companies that make them. Sure, some of it’s to improve the service, but sometimes it’s sold or shared for marketing, analytics, or who-knows-what-else. If privacy matters to you (and we think it should), this is something to think about.

Why We Love Local Control

Local-control devices do exactly what they sound like: they keep all the smarts in your house, not out in a server farm somewhere.

Here’s what that means in real life:

  • Your lights, sensors, and devices keep working even if the internet goes down.

  • You’re not dependent on a company staying in business or keeping servers online.

  • No surprise subscriptions.

  • No one’s harvesting your data to serve you ads about light bulbs.

That’s why we design systems that favor local-first architecture. For us, smart homes should be reliable, secure, and yours to control—not dependent on whether someone else’s server is having a good day.

How We Do It at Leios

We build custom smart home systems that are designed for your lifestyle—not to lock you into subscriptions or risky ecosystems. Whether it’s choosing gear that supports local control, setting up an offline-first automation hub, or making sure everything plays nicely together, we take a thoughtful, transparent approach.

No black boxes. No gotchas. Just reliable tech that works for you, not the other way around.

Curious about going local with your smart home?

Let’s talk! We’d love to help you build a system that’s smart and sustainable—for the long haul.